The Mets are planning to reinstate catcher Francisco Alvarez and infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil from the 10-day injured list on Friday, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters (video link via SNY). Both players will be making their 2025 debuts. Each will play in one final rehab game today.
Alvarez, 23, has appeared in nine rehab games thus far and taken 40 plate appearances. He’s out to a middling start, but the nature of his injury — a fractured hamate bone that required surgery — has a tendency to dull offensive performance early on when hitters return. The slugging backstop has been the Mets’ primary catcher over the past two seasons, hitting a combined .222/.294/.422 with 36 home runs in 765 plate appearances. Alvarez has also emerged as a top-tier pitch framer, though his blocking and throwing abilities lag behind.
So far in 2025, the Mets have gone with journeyman Luis Torrens as their starter and homegrown 28-year-old Hayden Senger as their backup. Torrens hit quite well through his first 11 games but has fallen into a deep slump. The 28-year-old is just 3-for-27 over his past nine games, making Alvarez’s expected return all the more timely. It’s likely that Torrens will continue on as the backup in order to preserve catching depth; he’s out of minor league options, whereas Senger has a full slate of option years left and can be sent directly to Triple-A Syracuse without first needing to clear waivers.
McNeil has been out all year due to an oblique strain. The Mets have gotten him some looks in center field during this rehab stint, although he’s not likely to play the position regularly. Still, with Jose Siri sidelined for upwards of 10 weeks due to a fracture in his leg, the Mets took advantage of McNeil’s rehab stint and versatile defensive profile to get him a start in center.
In all likelihood, McNeil will return and see time at second base, at designated hitter and perhaps in an outfield corner. The Mets opened the year with Luisangel Acuña and Brett Baty sharing time at second base. Acuña has handled things well, hitting .275/.351/.373 and contributing solid glovework.
Baty, after a torrid spring performance, had a brutal two-week stretch to begin the season but has begun to turn things around. The 25-year-old former first rounder crushed a second-deck homer off Zack Wheeler in the Mets’ currently ongoing game against the Phillies and entered play today on a .280/.357/.440 heater over his past eight contests. He’s still hitting just .204/.246/.354, but it’ll take some time to recover from the .111/.111/.148 line he totaled through his first 27 trips to the plate.
Reinforcements
I say keep Acuña and Baty while demoting Azocar and Senger.
Use McNeil in the outfield as needed.
Seems fine on the surface, but only as long as Taylor stays healthy and hits. If Taylor’s bat struggles and he needs to be sat two to three days a week, then who plays center? Nimmo is not a viable option for even semi-regular play, McNeil’s CF competence is unknown, and neither is Acuna’s (and his mere 280 or so innings there in the minors).
DFAing Azocar again means he can declare free agency this time and might not be there if you need to call someone up again.. how much do the Mets believe in Gilberto Celestino as the next man up?
And with McNeil and Acuna both on the roster, how much playing time does Baty get?
Long term, and if everyone does what we hope/think, it’d be great to see Marte and Winker gone, with Vientos taking up DH full time and Baty at 3rd.. but is Stearns ready to make that leap yet? Or does he still worry about whether Baty or Acuna can sustain this?
Both Acuña and McNeil have been working out in center. Acuña played a lot of games there for Syracuse last year.
Yes, McNeil has worked out there – and even played a game. That doesn’t mean he is competent enough to play it semi-regularly if something goes wrong with Taylor. And Acuna played only 254 innings there last year, and 289 for his career1 games – in CF for Syracuse, and 38 in his entire career. Is that enough? Depends on the player.
Honestly, the team is playing such well rounded ball, they could probably live with Drew Gilbert in CF once they feel he’s shown enough in AAA.
Perhaps. But we’re a long way from that being the case. Let’s see him actually A) hit well in triple-A first, and B) sustain it for some measure of time.
I’d much prefer Acuna getting CF reps over McNeil or Nimmo. We want a guy who can cover ground in CF. My only concern is Acuna trying to do too much due to youthful exuberance. The speed Acuna brings as a late inning PR adds a ton of value we’ve lacked for a few years.
While it may be unfair to see Baty go down with recent performance, I’d rather he get regular at bats and develop defensively around the diamond than ride the pine. For that and the roster crunch Senger & Baty are my guess but in Stearns I trust.
I don’t see any reason to keep Azocar given that McNeil can play the corner outfield spots.
Because Azocar can play center. I’m not saying this is definitive and Azocar must be kept. I’m saying this isn’t so straightforward and it warrants some thought as none of the solutions are comprehensively good.
I wouldn’t be surprised either way. To me, McNeil & Baty overlap positionally too much. Until Acuña proves he can handle CF we need Azocar on the roster to back up Taylor. Since it’s not a given Azocar would stay if DFA’d, Baty is the odd man out. We can only hope a Gilbert or Williams will make the decisions more difficult come mid season but Stearns has deftly shown a desire to keep guys down to continue developing vs riding the bench.
Not much reason to think that either Gilbert or Williams is close enough to be a factor by mid-season. The truth is that, with very few exceptions, prospects really do not move that quickly. And the ones who do are typically generational talents, often rated as top ten prospects, not top fifty.
If Taylor can’t help your team It’s simple. You play Acuna in CF. Find out in April/May if he’s a viable option – especially when you’re in 1st Place
18-7 and two starters coming back. Things are great in Flushing.
Yeah Mets are rolling, seven game winning streak. They have good depth in the rotation with Peterson and Canning emerging as legitimate options, and Blackburn, Manaea and Montas all expected to return at some point this season.
But its the Met’s AAA and AA starting pitching that has really stepped forward. They have a good number of players beyond Sproat and Tidwell that are throwing well.
They’ll have plenty to offer at the trade deadline. Mets are on the rise in the power rankings this week, I think they are #1 currently.
These are good problems to have. As is Nunez impeding return to pen. And Montas/Manaea potential returns in 4-5 weeks or so. Would hope the Stearns doubters club has broken up for good.
Absolute Masterclass. Cohen-Stearns-Mendoza is the best trio to ever happen to this franchise
Not sure how you define impending. But Nunez has just barely gotten back-to-back appearances, and Stearns did say he needs to be able to pitch at least 2 to 3 times per week before calling him up. And, oh, btw, he’s not pitching well.. so who does he replace?
But can they close?
I’m sure Stearns will add one RP in a summer trade – and it won’t be a middle inning guy
Look for closer by committee in the playoffs
Seems likely. Diaz is showing nothing you’d want to count on in the post.
My guess is that’s why they added Raley: to free up Minter to regularly take up a share of the closer chores in the second half.
The team’s already destroying the ball so adding these guys is a nuclear boost.